UMUR
"A New Era of Corruption" is the 3rd full-length studio album by US deathcore act Whitechapel. The album was released in June 2010 by Metal Blade Records. The regular version of the album contains 11 tracks while the vinyl and the digital version features the bonus track "Animus".
The music on the album is deathcore, played with lots of technical skill and variation. The vocals by Phil Bozeman are brutal growls but with a "core" edge. Compared to many contemporary deathcore releases the music on "A New Era of Corruption" features more "regular" death metal elements. That´s to a point where I´m a bit in doubt wether to call this a deathcore album or a technical death metal album with metalcore elements. Whatever you want to call the music it´s quite brutal, the pace is varied and overall the songs are effective and powerful. The strong musicianship is one of the greatest assets on the album. The songwriting is as such strong, but it´s hardly original or unique in any way. It isn´t the kind of music where I instantly would be able to recognise it as being Whitechapel, if I heard it at a friends house and didn´t know what was playing.
So while everything about "A New Era of Corruption" is highly professional ( powerful professional production, strong musicianship and professional songwriting) I think the band are in a dire need of a more unique sound to differentiate themselves from the vast amount of contemporary deathcore acts spitting out releases in a similar style. Still a 3 - 3.5 star rating is deserved.